The material in this
web site is
strictly intended as an informational source and not as a conversion
manual. Seek the expertise of a certified mechanic with extensive
experience converting gas vehicles to electric. I don't claim to be an
expert in the field, and I expressly deny liability and undertake no
responsibility for any injury, loss, theft, damage or expense incurred
by persons using this video. Do your conversion at your own risk and
only venture to do one yourself only if you know what you are doing and
have the appropriate tools.

Welcome
to the project of converting this Nissan Sentra 2004 to an electric car.
.................................................................................

By Jose Barriga. February 2016

This is the page dedicated to the conversion of my Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec-V 2004 to an Electric Car.

First, I must start by saying that I am not in the EV conversion business. I build this vehicle for myself and at a time where buying
an OEM electric car was not an option. They were very expensive and there were just a few models available, so I decided to
build my own. If you want to have a vehicle converted to electric in Florida, I know the right guy for the job. Contact
Steve Clunn at Green Shed Conversions. Also, you can see more detailed specs of my
vehicle here

So, how did I start? One day, several years ago, I was looking for something on youtube, I
do not even remember what, when I found a video of a converted electric
car. Until that moment, I did not know that it is possible to take any
gasoline-powered car, and convert it to electric with parts available
in the internet. This happened before the car manufacturers started
selling several versions of electric and hybrid vehicles, and my
knowledge on the topic was very limited, so I started researching, and
I realized that electric cars have been around discretely for over 100
years. Actually, the first electric car was invented in 1834 by Thomas
Davenport, and in the late 1890s, electric vehicles outsold gasoline
cars ten to one. The first car dealerships sold electric cars
exclusively, and many automobile companies like Oldsmobile and
Studebaker started as electric vehicle companies.

What happened to the electric cars then? They had such a good start.
Gasoline was cheap, oil abundant, and the electricity infrastructure
was almost non-existent. Motorized assembly lines were created to build
cheaper gasoline-powered cars, and since electric cars were limited to
in-town driving because of its limited range, and because of the
invention of starter motors eliminating the need to crank the engines,
the popularity of gasoline-powered cars increased exponentially.
The model of using gasoline to power cars, and in general, an oil-based
economy worked well for many years, but things are changing. Gasoline
have been raising because the easy-to-extract oil is gone forever, and
on top of this, consumption got so huge that demand has significantly
exceeded the domestic production and the US now imports most of the oil
it uses. We pay over a billion dollars of our wealth every day to
foreign countries for oil, and in spite of this, most of these
countries do not even like Americans. This huge consumption and burning
of oil and gasoline have also generated an additional problem:
Pollution. These circumstances have pushed governments, car
manufacturing companies and consumers in general to take a second look
at electric vehicles.

Burning fossil fuels, including oil, coal, and gas, is creating massive
amounts of CO2 and many other poisonous gasses. These pollutants are in
turn saturating the atmosphere with the so called “greenhouse
gasses”, culprit of the phenomenon called global warming, which
is gradually increasing the temperature of the world, melting the ice
caps and causing all kinds of problems, including wildfires, super
storms, increased number of tornados and hurricanes, increase of sea
levels and extinction of many species among many others.

This is where electric cars can help a lot. With electric cars there is
no need to import and refine oil. The electricity they use to function
is produced domestically. Many critics of electric cars have said that
the power plants used to produce the electricity to charge electric
cars pollute more than the fuel used directly on cars, but this has
been refuted by several serious studies, because the comparison did not
include the additional pollution generated by producing the gasoline.
To be fair, the pollution created by refining and distributing gasoline
has to include Oil extraction, transportation, escorted protection,
storage, refining, storage again, transportation to the gasoline
stations, storage again and then pumped to the cars; the actual process
of refining the oil is a very intensive and energy consuming activity
by itself; besides, oil, unlike electricity is a non-renewable
resource, and electricity can be produced from nonpolluting sources
like for example solar or wind.

Another advantage of electric cars is its simplicity. An electric motor
has basically only one moving part: The rotor. Comparatively, a
gasoline engine is a much more complex machine with hundreds of moving
parts that can fail, for example: Pistons, valves, oil, water and
gasoline pumps, belts, pulleys, levers, and more. Add seals, spark
plugs, filters (oil, air and gasoline) and endless electronic sensors
to the mix. The only parts that need to be replaced in electric motors
are the bearings, and they last about 50,000 miles of use. An electric
motor is estimated to last over 300,000 miles. Besides the motor,
electric cars in general are also much simpler and much more reliable
since there is no need for belts, radiator, muffler, gasoline tank,
catalytic converters, starters or alternators.

Electric cars are ideal for city driving, because when they are stopped
at red lights or stuck in traffic, their motors do not idle like
gasoline cars saving valuable energy. Additional advantages include
silent operation, safety (current batteries are safer than gasoline),
and that the infrastructure to charge them is already present, because
there is electricity available almost anywhere inside urban areas.
There is not even the need for additional infrastructure because
electric cars charge mostly overnight, when the demand from households
and businesses is greatly reduced. At the current rates, its operation
cost is between 2 to 3 cents per mile, or roughly about one dollar for
every 30 miles of use. This is less than one third of the current price
of a gallon of gasoline.

The main reasons why electric cars have not been massively adopted yet
include the price tag, their reduced range, and the long time they take
to recharge, but several things are being done to address these
problems. First, because electric cars are still about 50% more
expensive than their gasoline counterparts, the US federal government
has been offering a tax credit of $7,500 to buyers, and batteries are
getting better and cheaper every year as the technology matures.
Second, to alleviate the so called “range anxiety”, cars
are now equipped with better graphic range estimators, and public
charging stations are being added every day. Finally, overnight
charging does not seem to be much of a problem, because personal cars
are rarely driven all night. Fast charging is also becoming popular and
can charge an electric vehicle to 80% capacity in 30 minutes.

Demand of oil is expected to exceed production very soon, and pollution
is increasing to dangerous levels. A renewable and ecological form of
transportation is urgently needed and electric vehicles present a
viable solution. Electric cars are simple, affordable, quiet and
efficient, and can be charged with electricity produced domestically,
and often generated from renewable resources like solar or wind. There
is great potential for electric cars to become a main form of
transportation in the next decades; their advantages are very evident,
and prices are decreasing as this technology is maturing. The range of
electric cars is steadily increasing, but even with the current ranges
of 80 to 120 miles per charge, it seems to be enough for most of the
population (studies show that ninety percent of Americans drive less
than 40 miles per day). Early adopters are buying electric cars today
mostly for environmental reasons or because they are early adopters,
but in the near future, people will buy electric cars because they will
save them money in the short term and do not pollute.

I decided to make a
series of videos on the conversion as a way to show
and inspire those interested in doing their own conversions how I
did mine. I also realized in my research that there are very
few videos showing enough detail in these conversions and I decided to
document mine step by step. Watch them now >>

Florida where I live
is a very good place to drive electric cars. The temperature rarely
drops below freezing which affects the batteries, it is flat like a
tortilla and there is plenty of sun for the use of solar panels to
recharge the batteries. The only disadvantage is that everything is spread
out and far, so I will have to compensate by adding more batteries and
extend my driving range.

I
want to thank
the
following persons for their support in this project. My wife Lety for
putting up with the mess in the garage and recording the videos, Al
Lococo for his help and his book "Turning Point in History", Steve
Azzoli for his excellent ideas, Steve and Audrey Clunn of Green Shed Conversions for their help and advice,
Steve Rutheford for his help and inspiration, Victor Olvera for his
interesting comments, Michael Clark for putting together a local
group of enthusiasts, the whole team from Evnetics and Rebirth Auto for
their help and advice and Electric Vehicles of America for all the
valuable information in their newsletter. More to come...